


Awakening

by potentiality_26



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Ficlet, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 17:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11628672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: Robin looked meaningfully at the space between them, which was much larger than Strike would have thought his bed able to accommodate before he started moving.  “Come back over here.”Strike has a nightmare.





	Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr fic for [reindeerjumper](http://archiveofourown.org/users/reindeerjumper) who wanted a fic about Strike having a nightmare and Robin soothing him. This is… sort of that? 
> 
> Not Brit-picked. Also, I couldn't remember if the vehicle Strike was in was called an SUV in the books or something else. Apologies.

Strike had learned to appreciate Robin’s reflexes. Her quick reaction time in a car or a crisis- major or minor- had only impressed him more the longer he knew her.  He just hadn’t expected to ever appreciate those reflexes in a situation like this.

“I am so sorry,” he said.  It had been the SUV again, and he had thrown out his arm- except that he wasn’t in the SUV, he was in bed.  With her.  “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Robin said.  She was blinking, startled but still sleepy.  “I’m more worried about you.”

That made him feel even more ashamed.  “It was just a dream,” he said.

"A bad one."  Robin looked meaningfully at the space between them, which was much larger than Strike would have thought his bed able to accommodate before he started moving. “Come back over here.”

He shook his head without even intending to. He stood by it, though; he kept thinking about what could have happened.  He hadn’t struck her, but only because she noticed his restlessness and got out of the way before he connected.  “You don’t-” he started, without being sure how he meant to finish.

Robin’s brows drew together and her mouth twisted unhappily, though both were difficult to make out in the half-dark.  “Do you think I don’t know what it’s like? Do you think I never-”

Strike relented immediately, shaking his head for a completely different reason. He knew better than that.

Robin’s face cleared immediately.  Strike wondered how much of her previous expression had been crafted to inspire exactly this reaction in him.  He didn’t mind, either way.  Robin could use her good understanding of people to manipulate them at times, but there was no long term artifice in her.  And maybe, given his history, he shouldn’t trust so utterly that she meant well, but… he did. “Come back over here,” she said again, gently.  

He scooted toward her, and even obliged when she patted her thigh, directing him to rest his head on it.  She reached out, petting his head.  It was only then, with her bent over him, her hair like a curtain or a shield around him, that he noticed he was shaking.  “Oh,” he said.

Robin’s face contorted, but her expression remained impossibly gentle.  “It’s all right,” she said, fingers running through his hair and dancing over his scalp.

She didn’t say anything else, but then nothing else seemed necessary.  “We shouldn’t go back to sleep like this,” Strike told her eventually.

“Let me worry about that,” she replied.  

“All right,” he said finally.

She smiled and bent a little more, resting her forehead against his.  And he just breathed.

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com/).


End file.
